News archive from 20 December 2016

Hopkins, a month shy of his 52nd birthday, will step through the ropes for the 67th and final time in the early hours of tomorrow morning to take on Joe Smith.
It is as close as you will get to a testimonial in boxing. Not because Smith is a pushover,...

Liverpool moved back up to second in the Premier League with a dramatic 1-0 win over Merseyside rivals Everton on Monday night.
Both sides struggled to create clear-cut chances in what was a typically feisty Merseyside derby.
Sadio Mane finally broke...

I’ll hazard a guess, though, that Sir Lenny Henry: A Life On Screen (BBC2) was not a title its subject ever imagined he’d see.
Dudley-born to Jamaican parents, Lenny described his early self as being like a jukebox.
Schoolmates at his over-stuffed...

Brexit is set to cause a severe shortage of nurses in the NHS, which is already facing a chronic lack of them in many hospitals, research suggests.
Britain’s decision to leave the EU could deprive the health service of nurses from countries such as...

The NHS in England is buckling under a mismatch between soaring demand for care and levels of funding, a thinktank has warned. The King’s Fund said the number of admissions to hospital were rising steeply and were outstripping increases in the health...

Death rates from cancer in the UK will fall by 15% by 2035 thanks to advances in research, diagnosis and treatment, with more Britons living longer after their diagnosis, the charity Cancer Research UK predicts.
Breakthroughs will prevent more than...

Three losing Unison candidates start hearing
ALL three defeated candidates in the re-election of Unison general secretary Dave Prentis launched a challenge to the result at a three-day hearing yesterday.
Mr Prentis was returned with 49.4 per cent of...

Post Office workers open five days of action against threats
CROWN Post Office staff kicked off five days of strikes yesterday in a bid to stamp out bosses’ plans to flog off the network, close branches and attack workers’ pensions and job security....

Bosses ‘making misleading comments to media’
UNITE accused British Airways yesterday of making “misleading statements” to the media — despite promising to put an embargo on comments on cabin crew strikes.
Both sides agreed to the embargo while...

US ‘behind plan to hoard banknotes abroad’
VENEZUELA’S sudden decision to scrap and replace its most commonly used currency bill was an economic triumph over the country’s enemies, President Nicolas Maduro declared on Sunday.
He said that the prompt...

CITIES in northern China took emergency action yesterday to combat choking smog, limiting the number of cars allowed on the roads and temporarily closing factories.
More than 700 companies halted production in Beijing and traffic police restricted...

SEVERAL hundred people were arrested yesterday at protests throughout Indonesia demanding independence for West Papua.
Arrests were made in cities in Sulawesi, Java and Papua, but demonstrations went ahead in at least 15 places, said Veronica Koman, a...

FAKE NEWS, we’re told by the corporate media, is a serious problem and you should only trust “reputable” sources like them.
This assertion is made more laughable by their total regurgitation of a claim that “the lights could go out” next Christmas, a...

JOHN PILGER speaks to Ben Cowles about his new documentary film The Coming War on China and how US foreign policy is rooted in the 19th century
THERE is a scene in George Orwell’s 1984 at a mass rally when the main character Winston Smith realises the...